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Scroll down for more in this section |
Dec. 13 - Dec. 19, 2002
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San Francisco Singer-Songwriter Brings Her Talents to a Boil
By Mayur Deshmukh | Special to AsianWeekVienna Teng plays piano — has since she was five. She started making up songs when she was six and added some lyrics in junior high. She tried drawing, she tried softball and they just didn’t take. When she arrived at Stanford University in 1996, she put her music on the back burner and began the busy life of a pre-med student. Two years into college she switched over to computer science and by the time she graduated in 2000, she had also picked up a minor in American History. Somewhere over the course of her education, though, Teng turned up the heat on that back burner. It started at the piano in the lounge of her dorm sophomore year — mostly at two in the morning with an audience gathering by word of mouth. While studying to be a software engineer, she let her music simmer to a slow, steady boil, so that by the time she graduated, she had put out a four-song demo and laid down the 13 tracks that were to become her acclaimed debut CD, Waking Hour. |
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Also In Arts & Entertainment
Many of the reviews of the new Broadway production of Flower Drum Song have been scathing and patronizing. Audiences, in sharp contrast, have been giving performances standing ovations. Are Asian Pacific American and non-APA American tri-staters unwittingly plopping down c-notes for a bad play? What’s going on? Having seen the performance twice and studied the film, the play and the original novel, it’s clear to me most reviewers do not get why the new version is entertaining and important. Even more telling is the manner in which reviewers express their displeasure, revealing deeper issues about their own ideas about APAs. As U.S. demographics shift dramatically — especially in our metropolitan regions — new immigrants bring different sensibilities and insights about the United States. Yet, New York Broadway critics remain mired in dated frames of reference and risk becoming irrelevant to these new urban citizens.
Flower Drum Song — The Reviews are In
Critics clueless about emergent American sensibility
By John Kuo Wei Tchen | The Maynard Institute
Eth-Noh-Tec Celebrates 20 Years of Dance, Theater and Storytelling
Feature | National | Bay Area | Business
Sports | Arts & Entertainment | Opinion
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